Found myself up at The Grandstand again the other day and decided to try another of the eateries. The exec. summary of Cicely Kitchen is try another place.
It didn’t start well, I asked what one of the display dishes was called and how much it was. You see all the others were labeled, well he didn’t know and had to turn to the boss. I then chose something else from the menu but again after consulting the boss it wasn’t available.
So I got the chicken pot pie. I was told it would take 7-9 mins and as I had 20 mins to my bus asked for takeaway. 15 mins later when I went back I was told it needed 2 more mins. I let them know I was about to miss my bus and so the boss told him just to give it to me. Think she just wanted rid of this annoying customer.
So here’s the display version
And here’s what I got
Yup the pastry isn’t cooked. The inside creamy chicken filling was ok at least.
So some basic tips for the management:
1 – have staff that know what you are serving
2 – know how long it takes to cook your food
3 – don’t serve under cooked food, give a refund instead
Oh and 4 – always treat customers respectfully, if they **** you off and you can’t fake it, a service industry isn’t for you.
Hi Expat Dad SG,
Guess what? I had the same experience as you. Haha……..it sure wasn’t so amusing for us yesterday.
My partner ordered Brussels sprouts and sauteed mushrooms at Cicely Kitchen. Was informed that it would take 5-8mins. Instead, she was made to wait over for 30mins.
When asked if the food was ready, the staff’s reply was there were many orders before hers. My partner’s sis told the teenage staff that he should have informed my partner earlier instead. We had gotten other food and were waiting for her return.
I guess this comment must have peeved the boss Alicia Lin off. She came over, scooped the food from the cooking pan and chucked it to my partner & her sis. She said curtly “Nah, take it, take it.”
Unfortunately, the food was not worth the wait of my family of 7 as both dishes were overly salty. Not wanting to waste our appetite on mediocre food (no problem though with the Boston lobsters, prawns, fish, paella, crackling roast, Iberico pork, russian cakes and the wonderful ale that we ordered), I took the sprouts back to Cicely Kitchen, told the crew that it was too salty and they can have it back. Sauteed mushroom got chucked unceremoniously into the bin. Anyway, I was not expecting any money back.
I believe if you want to run a F&B business, the least you can do is to be respectful of your patrons and cook them decent food. Else, you really should not be in this line. Based on what I read in The Straits Times SoShiok article, maybe home cook “extraordinaire” Alicia Lin knows that the end is near hence the terrible attitude.
Don’t take my words for it. Maybe my palate was tainted by the Iberico pork and lobsters. You can try Cicely Kitchen again and see if you like it better the next time.
Well, I certainly didn’t……
http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/pasarbella-bukit-timah/review/id-9b730700/
Having moved abroad it’s unlikely that I’ll be there again, but if I was I would eat somewhere else as there are a number of good eateries there.
Sorry to hear that you also had an issue with the place.